It adds that "executives at both Facebook Inc. and Google Inc., among other companies, have held low-level talks with those at Twitter Inc. in recent months ... according to people familiar with the matter."

As the Journal says, $8 billion to $10 billion is a lot of money for a company that "had 2010 revenue of $45 million — but lost money as it spent on hiring and data centers — and estimates its revenue this year at between $100 million and $110 million."

Portfolio.com's The Mix blog writes, however, that the interest in Twitter is "further evidence that the appetite for big tech deals is back in a big way."

PC World's Business Center notes, though, that "despite what appears to be a rich valuation, Twitter executives are reportedly not interested in selling" and think they can eventually "build Twitter into a $100 billion company."